Retired Mumbai teacher alleges a cover-up by the Navy in son's death

Eighteen years into her diver son's death, a retired Mumbai teacher alleges a cover-up by the Navy.

advertisement

Kiran Tare

December 23, 2011

ISSUE DATE: January 2, 2012

UPDATED: December 31, 2011 12:37 IST

Anuradha Paldhe

Anuradha Paldhe lost her elder son Amar, a diver with the Indian Navy, on September 21, 1993, during an operation off Kakinada in Andhra Pradesh. Eighteen years on, the 66-year-old retired Mumbai school-teacher is engaged in a legal battle with the navy for the truth behind her son's death. She has not spent a single rupee from the Rs 10 lakh she received as compensation and won't touch it until she finds out the truth. The navy, on its part, has offered explanations ranging from heart attack to accidental death.

According to the navy's version of events, Amar, 23, was one of four divers scheduled to jump from a helicopter. The plan was for them to jump from a height of 15 metres into the water and swim to the nearest island. The first two divers jumped safely. The third sustained injuries after the jump. He was picked up by a rescue boat and taken to hospital. Amar then jumped into the water, surfaced and disappeared all of a sudden. On seeing Amar surface, the helicopter left to fetch another batch of divers while the rescue boat was busy with the third diver. When officers realised that Amar was missing, they began a search within 10 minutes. His body finally was found by fishermen three days later, nearly 750 metres from the jump site.

Paldhe's reached Visakhapatnam on September 24, 1993, to claim Amar's body. Her suspicions were fanned by the navy's papers on Amar's death which stated that it could not recover the body because of high tide. The Meteorological Department clarified that high tide was at 5.42 a.m. that day whereas the accident took place at 6.50 a.m. The navy cited heart attack as a possible cause of Amar's death but it found no mention in the post-mortem report. The report also revealed that there was no water in his lungs, so there was no possibility of death due to drowning. A navy officer, Commodore J. Verghese, sent Paldhe a letter on June 8, 1994, holding the operation in-charge guilty of negligence.

Paldhe filed a suit in a Kakinada court in 1997. "We did not want money. We just wanted to know the reason for Amar's death," she says. The navy lawyer told the court that Amar was trained to dive from 10 metres whereas during the exercise the helicopter was at 15 metres. "Why was my son asked to jump from 15 metres?" asks Paldhe. "The navy has killed my son. I have enough reason to level this allegation."

The Kakinada court in April 2004 held negligence by navy officers to be the cause of death and ordered the navy to pay Paldhe Rs 10 lakh as compensation. The navy challenged the judgment in the Andhra Pradesh High Court on September 23, 2004.

It was Paldhe who taught her son to swim. "Amar wanted to become the best diver in the navy and serve the country," she says.

Get real-time alerts and all the news on your phone with the all-new India Today app. Download from